IBESR News 13 June 2014

This has been a busy week for me being my first week back in Haiti. I also have been really tired trying to get used to the humidity and heat again! It always take me a little while when coming back from Colorado which is about 20% humidity and coming to Haiti which is probably close to 100% humidity at times! The difference makes me tired for a few days.

My trip down to IBESR went well. Several people were out sick due what they are saying is the Chikungunya fever. I will tell you what I was told.

1. The IBESR adoption staff says no new official proposals have been given since December. If anyone has received a proposal from IBESR since January 1, 2014, with the child's paperwork included and the official stamp of IBESR, would you let me know? There are some pre-matches being given that are from the creches to the agencies but these have not been officially approved by IBESR. We keep asking the adoption unit about proposals because we hear that there have been proposals received and they keep telling us that no official proposals have been given. Let me know if your information is different. An official IBESR proposals will have a letter signed by Mme Arielle Villedroin in the proposals.

2. There seems to be a lot of indecision at IBESR. I don't know if that is the right word, but the adoption unit staff is having a difficult time getting going on the adoptions since the lawyer who was in charge last Fall left IBESR. For almost 6 months, IBESR has told us that they would find an agreement with Parquet and the courts since dispensations are not required under the new law and that IBESR would sign all dossiers stuck in IBESR now that are needing dispensation. Even the lawyers I've talked to say that every other law that is changed allows for the old law to finish before the new law to go into effect for the things in process already. When President Martelly closed the dispensation office the dossiers already in process could not officially finish!

3. While I was there, I saw that the secretary was working on getting dossiers ready so that biological families could go and declare in front of the children's court judge that they are releasing their children for adoption. These are families that had been through the IIBESR interviews months ago and were told then that their children were going to be adopted soon.

4. I truly think the problem is that the lawyer that they put in charge of the adoption unit is someone that has history of indecision or accepts changes slowly. He also is busy with other duties in IBESR and so this is taking a long time. I saw that the Hague representative is working in IBESR again. They say she has been there almost 2 months now and maybe she can help to get things moving. I just want to see some proposals coming out of IBESR! We have children who are ready for adoption and we have dossiers sitting in IBESR! So let's get some proposals sent out!

5. We gave a long list of pre-matched suggestions to IBESR. These are children already matched by the agency or ones we think would be good matches between families and children. Hopefully, this will help get some quicker matches from IBESR.

6. I have had 5 different people tell me that IBESR will be raising their fee to $1500 USD. Everyone says this will not affect dossiers already in IBESR before they raise the fees. They will not raise them before publishing them in some way. Now this might be a note on the door of IBESR, I don't know.

I saw meetings going on and lots of comings and goings in the adoption unit but I wonder if some of the official delegations I saw are government officials asking the same questions I have?

Sometimes it's just taking that first step and writing those first proposals to get them started! Someone said in the office that they are afraid to do something about dispensations because they don't want to do the wrong thing!

It is very frustrating for the creches and the agencies. We are in limbo until IBESR decides what they are going to do and then does it. Let's pray that we are at the end of this 6 months of indecision in the adoption office at IBESR.

Wondering if you could list the names of the lawyers, Hauge representative, and any other staff so that we can pray specifically for their health, jobs, efficiency as well as for the process, the creches and the children/ families involved. Thank you for taking the time to update those of us waiting. Waiting for a sibling set referral. May the Lord continue to use you and bless you.

Hi Dixie, I have heard from others that All God's Children Int'l has had 3 or 4 referrals given out in 2014...one was just before Easter and I believe another was an older child possibly in February or March - I can't remember the date? Might check with someone over there. The "no referrals issued" word from IBESR may not be accurate...or possibly these referrals were already in progress prior to Jan 1 and just not passed to the waiting families until this year? Not sure. We have been in IBESR 6 mos and are waiting for formal referral - from limited info we hear our "match" is already classified as orphan status, so as far as we know we are not stuck waiting for birth parent interviews. We don't understand the process fully (from what I read, maybe there isn't much of one to speak of?) and don't understand why there isn't just an organized pile of "birth parent interviews done" and "classified orphan status" and a large box of pens next to them! Are they out of pens? We would gladly send some over :) We appreciate your blog posts and updates as all of these waiting families know we glean what we can from a myriad of sources to put our lengthy and sometimes excruciating wait times into some sort of sane order! Blessings, Laura

Wed, June 18, 2014 @ 5:24 PM

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